The mountain West has become a key political battleground for the 2008 presidential election.

Strategists are talking about how winning Colorado, Nevada and New Mexico could pave the way to an Electoral College win. Republican presidential candidate John McCain came to Denver Tuesday, and today Democrat Barack Obama pays a visit.

It’s a heady moment for a part of the country that has flown under the radar in recent presidential campaigns. But it’s also an opportunity to engage in the issues and challenge the candidates.

As Coloradans, we have some particular regional concerns, such as water, public lands and energy development.

But candidates can no longer stroll in, put on a cowboy hat and boots as part of some “Western strategy” and expect to hit it off with Coloradans. We’re a more diverse lot than that.

We also have deep concerns about the war in Iraq, foreign affairs, the economy and immigration. And like the rest of the country, we want better schools and an affordable health care system that works.

But a Western strategy to win the White House is an opportunity for residents here to have their voices heard, a chance to influence the political discourse something along the lines of the way Iowa does by having the first political caucus.

We hope Coloradans take advantage of the opportunity by reading up on the issues that move them and forming opinions.

As the presidential campaign moves into its final six months, the mountain West can play a key role in defining the candidates and tightening up the race.

Polls done by Rasmussen Reports show Obama with a modest lead over McCain in Colorado, 48 to 42 percent. In New Mexico, the numbers are 50 to 41 for Obama. In Nevada, McCain was leading Obama 46 to 40 percent.

One of the reasons the candidates have targeted the region is the very same reason their strategists will find it particularly difficult to get a clear bead on the place: unaffiliated voters.

Colorado is loaded with them, and they’re notoriously difficult to poll. McCain has traditionally done well with them.

But Obama showed this week that he gets it when he said Western voters are “independent minded” and would look at the last eight years before deciding whether the country is better off under Republican rule.

A key challenge for Obama will be to make inroads with Hispanics and overcome the geographic advantage that McCain, who is from Arizona, brings to the table.

McCain will have to differentiate himself from the Republican brand, which hasn’t played all that well in Colorado in recent years.

It’s lining up to be a fascinating final few months of the presidential campaign.

The Western strategy, along with the Democratic National Convention taking place in Denver in August, means there will be no shortage of politicking as the road to the White House cuts through the mountain West. For Westerners, considered under a “Republican lock” during the Reagan years, being in play politically not only gives us the opportunity to size up the candidates firsthand but to shape the course of the presidential debate.

Many were not surprised by the prompt verdict Monday in the sexual-assault case in Denver involving Taylor Swift. A jury of six women and two men concluded within hours that a Denver radio host had groped Swift _ grabbed her butt beneath her skirt during a photo shoot, as his wife stood on the other side of Swift.

Touch not that statue of Robert E. Lee in Charlottesville. Let it stand, but around it place plaques telling the curious that the man was a traitor to his country who went to war so white people could continue to own black people.